Sponsored Listings:
The street-level store marquee along a bustling but homey stretch of Bedford Avenue in the northern part of the hip Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., relayed a sentiment that would appear unimaginable on the other side of the East River:
“Relax. We’re open.”
Brooklyn offers a slightly slower pace and smaller scale for visitors both accustomed to and escaping from the warp speed of Manhattan. That said, hotel development during the past few years in New York’s most populous borough reflects what’s becoming more of a prime destination in its own right and less of a side trip.
In Williamsburg, the McCarren Hotel & Pool (formerly the King and Grove Brooklyn) opened across the street from McCarren Park in 2011, while one block west, the modern and towering William Vale hotel debuted last month.
A visit to the McCarren will further reinforce Williamsburg’s relatively (relative to Manhattan, at least) laid-back vibe. The 64-room hotel was renamed in 2013 and was until recently part of local hotelier Ed Scheetz’s Chelsea Hotels group. While the facade is glass and splashy, the hotel softens upon entry to its green, funky lobby.
Peek outside on a sunny day, and the vibe becomes downright Vegas-like, with a multilevel pool area accented by blues, yellows and a healthy dose of salmon hues. On a Friday afternoon, it’s an absolute scene.
More cosmopolitan still is the Wythe Hotel. Built in 1901 as a textile factory, the property was redeveloped into a 70-room hotel in 2012 with a head start on the industrial-chic design motif that has since been adopted by countless boutique hotels and a few chains.
With a bustling lobby and the well-regarded restaurant Reynard, the hotel features rooms with 15-foot-high ceilings, beds made of reclaimed wood and poured-concrete floors. Upper-level west-facing rooms offer views of the Manhattan skyline, while guests in lower-level rooms can check out the vintage signs painted on the side of the brick building next door.
The newer hotels reflect a borough that is playing catch-up to Manhattan in terms of hotel development. Whereas Manhattan has about as many hotels in its development pipeline, 70, as were opened during the past two years, Brooklyn’s pipeline of 29 hotels is more than three times the eight that have opened in that borough since 2014, according to NYC & Company, the city’s tourism bureau.
And for good reason. As Manhattan hotel-room pricing has been hurt by the influx of new properties — and, some say, by the growth in Airbnb units — Brooklyn has stayed steady. Between 2012 and 2015, the New York market’s RevPAR as a whole fell about 6%, to $197 a night, which is still the country’s highest, according to hotel-industry research firm STR.
During the same period, Brooklyn hotels’ RevPAR was up slightly, to $136 a night, while occupancy stood at 80% last year.
With that in mind, developers continue to open and improve Brooklyn hotels, and not just in Williamsburg.
Last December, Real Hospitality Group opened the 113-room Bklyn House in a grittier part of the borough where Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg meet. One block from the subway’s M line that connects South Williamsburg to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the hotel targets overseas travelers looking for longer stays who can’t afford Williamsburg or Manhattan room rates, offering WiFi and continental breakfast gratis. Bursts of orange and white as well as hallway murals further reflect the hotel’s sunny disposition.
Not to be outdone, downtown Brooklyn also boasts some recent hotel activity. Located on a busy stretch connecting Flatbush Avenue to the Manhattan Bridge, the 174-room Dazzler Brooklyn opened last August.
Falling back on the industrial-chic design scheme, the property, which is the first in the U.S. under Argentina-based Fen Hotels’ Dazzler brand, offsets the freneticism outside with soothing blues and greens in the lobby.
A little closer to the Barclays Center arena, InterContinental Hotels Group introduced its Even Hotels wellness-oriented brand to the borough in late August.
The 202-room hotel is looking to appeal to workout fiends and revelers alike, with amenities such as a two-story “green wall” of live plants in its gym and beer from the Brooklyn Brewery.
The New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge finished large-scale renovations earlier this year and put $43 million into updates. At 665 rooms, the hotel, which was built in 1998, is the borough’s largest.
True for a convention-center-oriented hotel, the rooms remain relatively conservative, with splashy wall murals offset by brown and gray furnishings and marble desks. Still, the mezzanine level offers a public area that’s a study in imaginative design when it comes to breaking down large spaces, while the long, windowside table offers great views of the activity along Adams Street below.
And the opening of the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, on the waterfront between the upscale Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo neighborhoods, is planned within the next few months.
Back in Williamsburg, the borough’s brand of urban sophistication is clear at the William Vale. The 22-story tower opened Sept. 8 with 183 rooms. Amenities include a 60-foot pool, the longest in a New York City hotel, as well as the 15,000-square-foot Vale Park, an elevated green space accessible to locals as well as to hotel guests.
Sourse: travelweekly.com
